My Daughter, My Princess

What a great day. After sleeping in (until 12:45!) I got around and took Tana out to goof off.

This week the twins are visiting my parents so Tana will get some very rare "alone" time with Dad and Mom. We started taking advantage of it as soon as we got back from dropping Andy and Annie off. Our special week together began with a late dinner at Napoli's then the movie, Just My Luck, that features her favourite (yes, I intentionally spelled that the British way!) band, McFly.
When Tana was born, Heath was almost 7. He was thrilled to have a baby sister. Up until this point, he had been an only child. Although it was an adjustment for him, there were enough years between the two that sibling rivalry was never an issue. I have some very precious pictures of Heath holding Tana. He looks so proud.

Tana was a gorgeous baby--absolutely gorgeous. She was born with the platinum blond hair that she still has today. We were so surprised when this very straight hair became curly a few years ago. Her eyes were a very definite and striking color of blue. Now, however, they are an incredible green shade with multi-colored flecks. But her most interesting feature was certainly her button nose. Where in the world did this come from? I remember laughing that you could see right up her nose because it was so turned up...so cute.

My Principal at the time, Jenny, came by to see Tana and told me that her daughter (one of my students) had told her mother that, "That baby is an angel, Mom. Really, she looks like an angel!" I doubt that Amanda remembers telling her mother that, but I will never forget her mother telling it to me. My volleyball team even threw the baby shower for her. What a special group of girls. I loved it when they "oohed" and "aahed" over her. Now when they see her picture on FaceBook, they can't believe how grown up she is!

Tana was certainly our little princess. I'm sure Heath would even agree. We all doted on her. At the age of 8 months, she was wanting to walk. She would stand up and hold onto things and take steps. By 9 months, she was walking without holding anything. It was amazing--yet so strange to see such a little baby walking around.

We moved to Tribune when Tana was a year old. She quickly learned to maneuver the steps in our bi-level home. Tandy, our boxer, was her pal. Tana could hug, climb, and maul that dog. We realized, though, that we made a mistake in naming our dog and our daughter such similar names. After calling Todd's grandma to tell her about an upcoming weekend visit, we got a call from Todd's mom. Grandma had called her to ask why in the world we would be planning to leave our baby home alone in the backyard for the weekend! Oh my...

The summer that Tana was three, I managed the Greeley County Swimming Pool. We spent many, many hours at the pool. Heath already loved to swim and Tana really learned to love it that summer. By the end of July, she could swim well and was allowed to go off the boards. Mom spent that summer growing...with the twins due in January.

On Halloween I got put on bedrest. Tana loved having me home even if I wasn't supposed to do much. She got to sleep in and play in her own house all day. Those were some special weeks with my daughter. It didn't last long, however. The twins came 5 weeks early on December 4. Tana had no idea how much her life would change.

Honestly, I had no idea how much the twins arrival would affect my little princess. All of a sudden Dad and Mom were busy, busy, busy with two new babies. We were exhausted. Heath was old enough to be involved in multiple activities so we were constantly dragging the kids everywhere. I remember noticing her personality changing but feeling incapable to do anything to stop it. It was a tough adjustment for my Sugar Pie...a very tough adjustment.

Tana has always loved the twins...she just missed the attention that she had gotten used to as the baby.

I remember Heath's friends in high school being annoyed with her when she was between 9 and 11 years old. They didn't want her bothering them. I used to laugh and say, "One day you'll come visit Heath when you are all home from college and Tana will walk in the room and you'll be sorry you weren't nicer to her!" They would all insist that this would never happen. Hmmmm...when Heath is home next month and his friends come to town, it will be interesting to see their reactions.

She has always been smart. Her fifth grade teacher told me once that Tana was the kid that all of the others wanted to be friends with because she was so nice to everyone and didn't participate in the "mean girl" stuff that starts happening at about that age. Thankfully, Tana has never been sucked into this destructive behavior that many girls succumb to...however, I'm sure she has been a victim of it.

Our move to Salina was hard on her. In a paper she wrote this year, she described the move as very difficult especially during the already awkward years of early junior high. Actually, this move was hard on all of us and I was wrapped up so tightly in my own concerns that I didn't realize how much she struggled during this time.

However, we found the right neighborhood, church, friends, and school. Tana blossomed and Tana became a young lady...a witty, smart, gorgeous, loveable, Christian, healthy, happy, fun-loving young lady.

Over the last several months, my daughter and I have felt more at home in our new city with our new lives. We are getting to experience again the very strong connection that we had when she was so tiny. It's funny that music helped bridge this gap. As I read over my blog posts, I guess it shouldn't surprise me. Music, obviously, is strongly connected to my emotions and relationships. As I started to listen more to her music (McFly) she started to listen more to mine (Elvis, Bruce, and a multitude of Hair Bands). My opinion started mattering to her. We began to work out together. Secrets were shared. Private jokes were started. Plus, we could sing along to each other's music.

So today, the second day of her special week alone with Dad and Mom, we enjoyed a late lunch together and then some shopping. I'm not talking about grocery shopping or toilet paper shopping, just fun browsing for nothing in particular. I got a ring stuck on my finger at Kohl's and we both had to bend over from giggling so hard. When I finally worked it off and put it back on the display case, it was smothered in lotion. We stopped at Sonic for large cherry limeades. We hit the mall to pick up her new contacts. Lastly we stopped by Merle Norman to select some of our favorite over-priced makeup and fight over the "free" gifts.

But, it wasn't so much what we did but how we did it. We laughed a lot today. But I was also able to give her some serious advice on the challenges of being a teenage girl. She listened to me share some things that I went through when I was younger...things that I hadn't shared before. I love the way she says, "Oh Dear!" rather than choosing other less tasteful expletives.

Am I my daughter's friend? No, I'm her mother. I will always love her, listen to her, cry with her, and laugh with her...but I will also hold her accountable and have high expectations of her. She is really something. She's growing up so fast. Spending time with her now makes me feel like the princess.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

Funny Things My Kids Say--Part 4

I had a great morning today.

After waking early, I read the paper in bed and worked on today's crossword then lazily drifted back to sleep. Later I woke up to the smell of fresh coffee, biscuits, sausage/gravy, and eggs. Yum! We migrated into the living room after breakfast and I drank a second cup of coffee while we all made fun of the Brady Bunch episode that Todd had stopped on while flipping through channels.

The Brady Bunch episode was the one where the boys found a wallet full of money. After telling their parents, they learned that the "right" thing to do would be to turn it into the police and try to return it to the rightful owner. They hoped nobody would claim it because they found that, after a period of time, the cash would become legally theirs! Mr. Brady, however, was a resourceful man and decided to run an ad in the paper. Lo and behold, the owner was able to describe the wallet and its contents then pick it up.

The acting is so awful. We laughed that we didn't realize how cheesy it was when we were kids. Our children all watched and even chuckled--at the hair, clothes, bad dialogue, etc. When it was over, I said that each episode had a moral lesson. Todd chimed in that, yes, the Brady Bunch had certainly helped raise him. I turned to my oldest daughter and asked, "What moral lesson did you learn, Tana?" in a cheeky tone with a grin on my face. In a very dry voice, my sweet child said, "When you find a wallet, don't tell your parents."

Aahhhhh...another glorious morning in the Tyler household...

Funny Things My Kids Say--Part 3

I remember when I was a kid that my mother would buy chickens and try to explain how to cut them up so that you would end up with all of the pieces looking right. Her mother had taught her when she was young. She cut it so that there were four breast pieces, two of which would probably be considered the tenderloin pieces now. And, she always had a seperate wishbone piece. So, really, we ended up with 5 pieces of good white meat. Sometimes she would buy packs of chicken pieces to add to it, but usually she bought whole chickens.

Nowadays we are spoiled. I have never bought a whole chicken. In fact, I rarely buy chicken pieces. Instead, I just buy the boneless chicken breast filets. And we eat chicken often so we just pick it up when it's on sale and stuff it in the freezer for future use.

When Tana was pretty little, I would say 4, she came into the kitchen as I was putting the chicken in the crockpot. Since I was cooking it all day to shred for enchiladas for supper, I decided to save a few bucks and buy the chicken breasts that were on sale that week at the store rather than buying the filets.

As I was taking it from the package, rinsing it, pulling off any extra fat, and throwing it in the crockpot, Tana watched intently. She asked, "What are you doing?" I told her that I was going to cook the meat for supper. She continued to watch and finally, with a look of horror and disgust on her face, she asked, "Is that dead chicken?" I looked at her and said, "Yes." In her little four-year-old voice she then matter-of-factly stated, "Well, I don't eat dead chicken." And with that, she turned up her nose and was gone.